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Originally Posted by laEspadaAncha
...The presence of runic-looking characters is not a sufficient condition to imply a Viking attribution IMO. That it is a bronze ring is not of much help either as they were in use from the British Isles to the eastern Mediterranean for the better part (over?) a millenium. 
Neat scramasax/seax though... Is it yours? If so, could you post dimensions? |
Hola, laEspada - Many thanks for your quick reply. Although I don't have the specifics or anything like your background in edged weapons at all, I kind of thought as much, given the generally "loose" nature of claims on eBay.
Like you, I doubt that those three characters are actual Viking runes (possibly Latvian, Belorussian or Ukranian - who knows?), nor is the bronze material any more definitive. I imagine a lot of rings (and bracelets and knives and etc.) were made of bronze during this era. They actually named an Age of Man's history after it -- the
Bronze Age.
Still, over time, one gets to know what to look out for, and when unsure, I tend to bow out of the bidding, if in it at all. (You wouldn't believe all the creative phrasing used to skirt the genuineness issue: "Bronze ring from the AGE of the Vikings," as if that alone confers definitive origin as Viking. That's like calling every horror movie made in the 1960s as coming "from the AGE of GODZILLA!" Oy.
Thanks again for your prompt reply and your informative, thoughtful answer. I'll hold my cards for now and keep an eye out for only those that I KNOW to be of Viking manufacture.
Ciao for now!
Bjern Bjorn Yestjerday.